Book Review Roundup: Obama's Family History And A Humphrey Bogart Biography

"The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore" by Benjamin Hale

New York Times

Every first-person narrator creates himself out of words, but this process is particularly acute in Bruno's case, since possession of language is the only thing that qualifies him for human consideration, especially after acts of violence for which he would otherwise be put down. Like Scheherazade, he tells his story in order to stay his execution.

"Tough Without A Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart" by Stefan Kanfer

New York Times

Kanfer's bibliography lists two dozen books devoted to Bogart, and that's not counting the study of his mother's work or the memoirs of his colleagues. Why another one, and why this one? Kanfer makes the case, mustering superlatives: Bogart, "the most imitated movie actor of all time," "the highest-paid actor in the world" (in 1946), "the most important American film actor of his time and place."

"Swamplandia!" by Karen Russell

San Francisco Chronicle

As a balanced and self-contained work of art, "Swamplandia!" may not live up to its own ambitions, especially when the signs of a struggle for meaning weigh down the middle pages, or when something terrible happens to Ava that seems less inevitable than selected by the author for its sheer sickening badness. But as a manifestation of Russell's brilliant descriptions, characterizations and, most of all, voice, the book works wonderfully. Russell is the kind of storyteller whose charm blinds and hypnotizes the reader into believing - and loving - every word she writes even at the same time that you recognize the flaws in the whole.

"Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology And Less From Each Other" by Sherry Turkle

Slate

Turkle is a sensitive interviewer and an elegant writer, and her book captures the anxiety and ambivalence that children and adolescents (and adults, too) feel about the new developments. Her general conclusion is that those anxieties are justified. Both robots and the Web will have a profound, and bad, effect on human psychology. Technology will lead to devalued and alienated lives rather than enriched ones.

"The Accidental Anarchist" by Bryna Kranzler

Seattle PI

But no matter what side of the emotional gamut is being explored, Kranzler's vivid and visceral writing, anchored to the rock solid and consistent depiction of the protagonist and the force of history, makes for a seamless and cohesive page-chaser.

"O.K.: The Improbable Story of the World's Greatest Word" by Allan Metcalf

Los Angeles Times

Metcalf's book is an enjoyable addition to the shelfload of books prompting us to reconsider everyday things -- from appliances to the moon overhead to the air we breathe. His book, in fact, isn't just enjoyable -- that's right, it's better than OK.

"The Obamas" by Peter Firstbrook

Washington Post

Firstbrook has written a strange and well-meaning hybrid of a book. There are long stretches of oral histories, given by close and distant Obama relatives and buttressed with often numbing historical detail on Kenyan wars and tribal political intrigues. You will learn not only about those intrepid explorers Henry Morton Stanley and David Livingstone, but also far more than you need to about the ritual of lower-tooth extraction for Luo boys.

Comments

[3fingerbrown]

01:02 PM on 02/09/2011

True, lots of Bogart books have been published over the years--many were quickies put out during the nostalgia craze of the 1960s and '70s. But I don't know that he's ever gotten a really definitive bio by a top-notch biographer. A shame, because he deserves one.

Also a shame that so many of our best biographers seem to think that writing about show-business figures is beneath them. For more than a hundred years now, show business has been the most dominant force in our culture--more than politics, fine arts, or religion. It informs just about every aspect of our lives in some way. Yet the leading figures of this world-conquering force are, for the most part, being set in print for the ages by cut-and-paste hacks.

Neil Gabler, Peter Guralnick, and Nick Toches have shown what talented, serious writers can do in the field of show-business biography, and why it can be an important genre for helping us understand who we are and how we got this way. But too few of our best biographers have followed their lead.

[dahpunkster]

09:30 PM on 02/07/2011

you guys need to listen the unbearable lightness of scones on tape- by Alexander Mccall Smith it is about Scottish people trying to find meaning somewhere. a six year old with a " tiger mother" who just wants to be a kid and join the scouts . A retiree who doesn't feel old but has lost her identity , an nuerotic,caffeine driven art gallery owner who has a weird honeymoon.

[ChrisRoberts]

07:46 PM on 02/07/2011

"Swamplandia!" is a straight to the drawing board regional telling. The fact that the title blares out in exclamation point, "Look at me!" does the novel no favors. There is only so much one can be interested in when colorful, for the sake of it characters, go about the business of living by the codes and credo of the provincial. This work is more a very long short story. In the end, when I pick-up a novel, I want to read a novel.